Twin Lives

The western twin moved to the middle of the north end of the room and started dancing.  Erevel, Paullus and Ursina appeared to stare toward the dancer.  The other twin appeared to regenerate some health and then touched Gavril causing damage as she appeared to heal more of her damage.

Armania tried the wand of scorching ray once again and this time the spell actually fired and affected the twins but not very heavily. 

Erevel looked confused and hit herself with her sword.  Gavril then took his attacks with both hands, but only managed to actually hit the twin once.

Ciprian, having failed to identify the twins previously, tried once again.  They were Nightmare Maenads and they had Illusion Resistance.  He then began a Bardic Performance against the Maenads and then cast Remove Fear on Ursina, Gavril and Erevel.  Ursina stood still babbling incoherently while Paullus fired an arrow into his own leg.

The western twin glared at Gavril, who stared blankly off into space.  The other twin touched Erevel and appeared to heal from the damage inflicted. Armania once again used the wand successfully.  Erevel, still looking confused, shifted to the side of the twin and hit once with her attacks.  Gavril now attacked Erevel with both hands.  Erevel hit the floor and disappeared.  Ciprian, after swallowing her fear, moved up to the western twin and attacked.  Ursina continued babbling to herself and Paullus again fired an arrow into his leg.

The western twin split its attacks between Ciprian and Gavril, destroying another image, but also hitting Ciprian once. The other twin attacked Gavril and Armania again used the wand of Scorching Ray which dropped the eastern twin to the floor.  The party was invigorated by this result, even though they were missing their main fighter. 

Gavril and Ciprian managed to flank the last twin, while Ursina and Paullus continued to be confused, either doing damage to themselves or babbling incoherently.

One more attack from the Maenad and then Gavril and Ciprian put her down.  

The party set about healing and searching for magic of which none was found.  The healing took some time and then the party discussed their next actions. Some talk was offered about waking up and coming back with Erevel tomorrow, but that was shot down even though Armania was almost out of spells.  Gavril wanted to try the doors found behind him but the rest of the group talked him out of it.  He did notice that there were no keyholes in the doors.  Ciprian and Armania wanted to find Yath-Kheph and use his help to defeat Ahrkh-Nar, or better yet just have them fight it out amongst themselves.  Ciprian noted that there were maps, scared and stained with blood on the walls of this room.  Three appeared to be areas of the Dreamlands that the party had traveled to retrieve items for the Mad Poet.

As the party was moving to exit the room, the two Maenad stood up and advanced to fight once again.  A fireball on the two reduced their chances but the party was again in for a fight.  The party prevailed even as they continued to smack the daylights out of the Maenad twins when they were on the ground.  Gavril applied a Coup de Grace to both as Ursina checked to see if they were really dead!

Down the stairs the party headed after another round of healing.  The second floor appeared unchanged as they passed through on their way to the first level.  Two long lines of cells crowded this oppressive stone room. Although stone walls separated adjacent cells, the cells are divided from the corridor with floor-to-ceiling walls of iron bars that provide no privacy. All of the immediately visible cells were empty except for leather pallets, metal buckets, and suspicious stains. A pair of double doors stood within a massive slab of stone south of the stairs.

Ciprian went to the double doors and found them locked.  He began using the keys to see if one would unlock them.  Paullus moved along the northern most hall of cells and came upon a cell containing a lean, strong woman with short black hair and an ugly scar across her brow and nose.  He recognized as Kelvetta Brix from Nestor Bindlay’s description.

"Please get me out of here!!" Kelvetta screamed as Paullus approached.  "Those two blood soaked twins have taken all of the other prisoners taken up the stairs and I have heard the terrible death cries echoing down from above."

"We need a key," Paullus patiently explained noting that Kelvetta had bloody hands as if she had been working fruitlessly at the cells bars.  Ursina walked down the southern row of cells and came upon another cell with a dark haired woman sitting in the corner.  She did not move as Ursina approached.

"We will all die, I am damned!" the woman intoned softly.  "You will die by their inhuman hands also!"

"We are looking for a key," Ursina said attempting to empathize with the woman.

"I am imprisonment and torture as I reap the fate I have sown throughout my life," came the only reply as the woman looked fixedly down at the floor.

Armania headed toward Kelvetta Brix' cell as Gavril stood just watching the whole scene play out.  Ciprian unlocked the doors into a ten by ten chamber with double doors directly opposite those just opened.  He unlocked them also to find Yath-Kheph waiting.

"Have you killed the upstart?" came the telepathic voice.

"No, but we have killed the twins," replied Ciprian.

"What are you waiting for?"

"We thought you would like to help out on the final kill."

"Then let us be on our way.  I will follow you up to the top level."

"We are checking out this level first," Ciprian offered.

"Weren't there more of you before?  I was sure there was another."

Ursina determined that both of the prisoners were evil and whispered that maybe they shouldn't be let loose.  The middle row of cells were all empty and there was a grate in the floor at the base of the western wall emitting a sour smell.  No magic was detected in the prison chambers.

At this point Yath-Kheph was getting pushy, wanting to end his ordeal with the damned underling. So the party headed to the top floor once again where they lined up to be able to see through the opening doors.  Ciprian and Ursina stood further south as no one was sure of the loyalties involved.

Gavril opened the door and moved to attack anything that exited the room.  Several unusual musical instruments hung on hooks in the room: oddly shaped harps, irregularly angled woodwinds, and stringed boards.  A moon beast, its tentacles cradled a musical instrument lovingly as it moved into the doorway.  A fireball erupted into the space of the party, but it appeared slightly different and vague.  Most of the party determined that it was an illusion, but even those who disbelieved took some damage.

Yath-Kheph stood by and directed the party to kill the traitor.  Paullus fired an arrow at the monster but missed.  Armania moving out of the line of effect, began a Summon Monster spell while Ursina cast Prayer on the party as Ciprian began his Bardic Performance.  Without Erevel to attack the party could be in deep trouble.

Gavril attacked from the side, seeing that he would not be able to move around the beast.  His probable critical hit failed as the Amorphous body of Aharh-Nar appeared malleable.  Ahrkh-Nar's instrument let out an ear-splitting shriek and Paullus began to scream silently, being wracked with pain.  Ciprian stopped his Performance and reached out to Paullus, allowing him to retry blocking the pain, which he did successfully. 

Yath-Kheph now air walked to the south of Ciprian and Ursina, attacking the images of Ciprian but landing a tentacle on Ursina.  Paullus, not staggered, again fired a flurry of arrows doing some damage to Ahrkh-Nar.

Armania called forth two grizzly bears and placed the next to the two moon beasts, but their attacks failed.  She then cast a fireball on Ahrkh-Nar as Ursina cast retribution on Yath-Kheph.  Finally Ciprian re-started the Bardic Performance and yelled with Blistering Invective at the two moon beasts.

DM's Notes:  The party earned 2,133 XP for the night.  The battle with the moon beasts, minus Erevel will continue.